PRESS RELEASE: AMANET Launches Large-Scale Testing of Candidate Malaria
Vaccine MSP3-LSP in Mali Dar es salaam, 06 June 2008
The African Malaria Network Trust (AMANET) and researchers at the Malaria Research Training Center (MRTC), University of Bamako in Mali have launched a large scale study to evaluate the candidate malaria vaccine merozoite surface protein-3 long synthetic peptide (MSP3-LSP).
MSP3 has been shown to be safe for human use in earlier studies done in Switzerland, Burkina Faso and Tanzania, both in adults as in young children. The trial launched in Mali becomes the most advanced for this product and the first ever large scale MSP3-LSP study in Africa. The study is being implemented by a well qualified and highly experienced team of researchers at MRTC, led by Professor Ogobara Doumbo, Director of MRTC. The Principal Investigator for this trial is Dr Mahamadou Soumana Sissoko.
Malaria caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum is a major health threat to Mali, one of the principal, if not the most important, causes of ill health and deaths in the country. Malaria alone accounts for over a third of all doctor-patient consultations in Mali. The disease affects mostly pregnant women and children under five. Responding to the burden, the government of Mali is working hard to counter malaria using insecticide treated nets, the newly introduced Arthemisinin combination therapy and intermittent preventive treatment for pregnant women. In Mali as it is all over the malaria endemic region in Sub-Saharan Africa; increased parasite and vector resistance to drugs and insecticides continue to frustrate the war against malaria, bolstering the need for search of a new, affordable and efficacious intervention; a malaria vaccine.
This MSP3-LSP malaria vaccine trial will address several scientific issues including confirmation of the vaccines preventive effect against episodes of clinical malaria and assessment of the quantity and function of the immunological responses, all of which are considered to be important parameters for an efficacious vaccine, said Dr Sissoko.
We have accepted to conduct this trial because MSP3-LSP has a novel and promising mechanism of action and has potential for efficacy as a malaria vaccine said Professor Doumbo, MRTC Director.
The study which was approved by the Institutional Ethics Review Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry at Bamako University, the Malian Ministry of Health and the AMANET Scientific Committee, involves 414 healthy children. The children, aged between 12-48 months, are randomly selected from the peri-urban village of Sotuba in the outskirts of Bamako. The MRTC has collected base-line malaria data and established a good working relationship with the community in this area since 1990.
Trial participants are divided into two groups (test and control) each comprising 207 children. The test group will receive the candidate MSP3-LSP vaccine while the control group will receive a rabies vaccine. Each child is scheduled to receive a total of three immunizations delivered a month apart and will be followed up for minimum period of two years. These schedules of vaccinations comply with the current expanded programme on immunization (EPI) for newborns.
The trial is sponsored by the African Malaria Network Trust (AMANET); a Dar es Salaam based pan-African NGO leading Africa in malaria Research and Development. The malaria vaccine programme at AMANET receives funding from the European Commissions Aid Cooperation Office (AIDCO).
Commenting on the launch, the AMANET Managing Trustee Professor Wen Kilama said, The launch of this study marks a significant step in the search for an effective affordable intervention to provide Africa with the necessary tools to win the battle against malaria and rid Africa of a deadly scourge
MSP3 discovery is based on converging evidence from many immuno-epidemiological studies and pre-clinical studies in animals. It has been shown that induced antibodies to MSP3 promote the function of a group of white blood cells (monocytes) which attacks and kills the malaria parasite. For this reason, the trial will also provide the first proof of concept for this mode of action of antibodies, the second main paradigm underlying immunity to malaria (the first one being the inhibition of parasite invasion into red blood cells).
Moreover, the MSP3 target is said to be highly conserved, meaning that it is identical in all parasites infecting humans, a major advantage as compared to other malaria vaccine candidates. Aluminium hydroxide, the adjuvant used this vaccine, has the widest clinical experience. An adjuvant is a substance added to a vaccine to potentate its immune responses.
MSP3 was invented by Dr Pierre Druilhe and colleagues at the Biomedical Parasitological Unit of the Institute Pasteur in Paris, France. The vaccine batch currently under trial is produced by Synprosis, a Biotechnology company based in Marseille, France and clinical lots are released by Henogen of Belgium.
For further information contact:
Dr Charles L. Wanga
Communications Officer
African Malaria Network Trust [AMANET]
Third Floor, Commission for Science and Technology Building
Ali Hassan Mwinyi Rd
PO Box 33207, Dar es Salaam, TANZANIA.
Tel: +255 22 2700018
Fax: +255 22 2700380
http://www.amanet-trust.org
Email : mailto:clwanga@amanet-trust.org